Available online at www.ijmrhs.com Special Issue 9S: Medical Science and Healthcare: Current Scenario and Future Development International Journal of Medical Research & ISSN No: 2319-5886 Health Sciences, 2016, 5, 9S:25-30 Pathology of Faculty Members’ rank Promotion in Universities and Higher Education Institutions Affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran Abdolreza Gilavand Employed Expert on Faculty Appointments, Department of Education Development Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT The success of faculty members of medical sciences universities to promote higher ranks is through long-term evaluation of four educational, research, executive, and cultural performances them. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in non-systematic review form in 2016 to under title of pathology of faculty members’ rank promotion in universities and higher education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran.It was conducted based on views of experts and searching the international databases such as Thomson Reuters, Scopus, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Iranian databases such as Magiran, SID, Iranmedex. Database without language restriction, since 2000 sources, with the MeSH term "Faculty promotion". At first, in the initial search,188 articles were found, and finally, 21 of them which were related to the subject of this research were used.The promotion indicators of faculty members to ranks of assistant professor, associate professor and full professor are based on regulations of faculty member promotion. Paper-orientation and lack of attention to educational activities, the lack of appropriate quality and quantity indicators to assess the four activities of promotion, subjectivity of some promotion indicators, lack of transparent and fair promotion practices, heterogeneous processes and lack of expertized forces in promotion committees in some universities, lack of using promotion automation system in some universities, prolonged promotion process, unnecessary bureaucratic requirements, adding cultural Article in faculty member promotion since 2011 without covering all cultural activities examples are considered as major problems in faculty member promotion process. Keywords: Rank promotion, Faculty members, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Iran _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Promotion system of faculty members of universities is one of the major mechanisms in maintaining and improving the quality and efficiency of higher education and research activities in the country[1].Members of faculty are important and key elements of higher education that their qualitative and quantitative decline has direct impact on higher education system performance of any country[2]. As status and role of higher education is determining in economic, social, political, cultural, and health development of any country and as skilled and required human resources of various sectors are trained by universities and higher education institutions, improving or developing this sector, especially faculty member promotion, has great importance [3]. Attracting and recruiting qualified specialists, retaining and promoting of professional life of faculty members are factors affecting efficiency and effectiveness of universities and higher education institutions [4]. One of the significant aspects of Iran's ancient civilization is pay due attention to the medical knowledge the turning point of which is establishment and development of Academy of Gondishapur (GS) in Khuzestan province of Iran in 1745 (271 AD) [5]. Promotion of faculty members in medical science universities of Iran to higher ranks is achieved by indicators determined by Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Promotion of rank is based on four educational, research, executive, and cultural activities. It depends on obtaining the score specified for each scientific rank and spending specified period 25 Abdolreza Gilavand Int J Med Res Health Sci. 2016, 5(9S):25-30 ______________________________________________________________________________ (three to five years) performed by qualitative and quantitative investigation of these activities [6].Promotion system of faculty member of universities is one of the major mechanisms in maintaining and strengthening of quality and efficiency of higher education and research activities in country. Accordingly, as new regulation of faculty members universities and educational and research centers is under development and as maintaining and improving the quality of faculty members is one of the most important factors investigated in evaluation of specialized performance indicators of university, its realization create better results in outputs of tis system. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the pathologically the process of faculty members aim of this study was to determine pathological process of promotion among faculty members of universities and higher education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in Islamic Republic of Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in non-systematic review form in 2016 to under title of pathology of faculty members’ rank promotion in universities and higher education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was conducted based on views of experts and searching the international databases such as Thomson Reuters, PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Iranian databases such as SID, Magiran, Iranmedex using a searching strategy during 2000 to 2016 years. Database without language restriction, since 2000 sources, with the MeSH term "Faculty promotion" and "Faculty members". At first, in the initial search,188 articles were found, and finally, 21 of them which were related to the subject of this research were used. The promotion indicators of faculty members to ranks of assistant professor, associate professor and full professor is based on regulations of faculty member promotion passed by Council of Cultural Revolution of country. RESULTS The overall objective of faculty members’ promotion department of universities and higher education institutions is continuous investigating and evaluating of cultural, educational, research and executive activities of faculty members, leading finally to promotion and modification of faculty member of that university. In every university, the evaluation of certificate of promotion applicants is performed through selected committee of faculty, specialized committee of educational deputy of relevant medical science university, and finally audit board of university or central audit board of Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Four major components of promotion are as follows: Article 1: it involves evaluation of cultural, educational, and social activities, and obtaining minimum 10 scores and maximum 30 scores, and after four years of stopping at current rank to be geographically full-time faculty member and 5 years to be full-time faculty member Article 2: It involves investigation of educational activities and obtaining the minimum 40 scores and maximum 70 scores, and after 4 years of stopping at current rank to be geographically full-time faculty member and 5 years to be full-time faculty member Article 3: It involves investigation of research and technology activities and obtaining the minimum 35 scores and maximum 45 scores for full profession rank (has no score ceiling), and after 4 years of stopping at current rank to be geographically full-time faculty member and 5 years to be full-time faculty member Article 4: It involves investigation of scientific-executive activities and obtaining the minimum 10 scores and maximum 40 scores, and after 4 years of stopping at current rank to be geographically full-time faculty member and 5 years to be full-time faculty member. It noteworthy that in exceptional conditions including publishing the papers in journals (Science, Nature, lancet, JAMA, England ) the waiting time for promotion to higher rank is deducted by one year[6]. 26 Abdolreza Gilavand Int J Med Res Health Sci. 2016, 5(9S):25-30 ______________________________________________________________________________ Figure 1: The process of scientific promotion Many studies have been conducted In Iran and abroad in order investigate the process of faculty member promotion pathologically. In a study conducted by Mir-Hosseini et al (2008), criteria of Iran's promotion regulations were compared with other countries, and accordingly, some recommendations have been proposed for higher comprehensiveness of regulation in the area of greater attention to educational aspects of faculty member activities and considering the effect of research and scientific activities in context of society [7]. In a study conducted by Karimi et al (2014), the experiences of some faculty members on promotion process of faculty members have been investigated and discussed. In addition to specifying possible obstacles in the promotion process, some recommendations were suggested in this regard. In this study, lack of assessing the quality of activities, lack of homogenization in processes and lack of using expert forces in faculty committees were considered